This board is populated with everything except for the Parallax Propeller Chip, memory and the optional Parallax Crystal (Memory and crystal not sold by Schmartboard). You hand solder these parts using SchmartBoard|ez technology which makes soldering easy and flawless (and some headers which are included). The Propeller chip makes it easy to rapidly develop embedded applications. Its eight processors (cogs) can operate simultaneously, either independently or cooperatively, sharing common resources through a central hub. The developer has full control over how and when each cog is employed; there is no compiler-driven or operating system-driven splitting of tasks among multiple cogs. A shared system clock keeps each cog on the same time reference, allowing for true deterministic timing and synchronization. Two programming languages are available: the easy-to-learn high-level Spin, and Propeller Assembly which can execute at up to 160 MIPS (20 MIPS per cog).